Made In Italy
by Esso
Summary: high school!AU - "He has been missing military school, but he has never wanted it so desperately as he does now. There are no Italian girls in military school." Germany/fem!Italy


**A/N: **Happy birthday, West~ This one's for you.

This is a part of my high school/small town AU. Reading the others isn't necessary, but they may give a little context/headcanon for other couples.

Features fem!US and fem!Italies. If you want the Karpusi-Vargas family explained, PM me.

Oh, and I disclaim.

* * *

The first words Ludwig Beilschmidt hears when he walks into school are: "That's Felicia Vargas!"

Of course, his older brother, Gilbert, is the one who hisses them into his ear. Gil is enough of a failure to point out the fact that the oblivious, _Italian_ freshman has nice legs. Ludwig does not know his brother well enough to punch him in reprimand; the albino boy is a junior, and the fact that he's mentally undressing the freshman girl makes the blonde boy feel awkward.

Ludwig does not want to stare at the little Italian any longer, because she is reaching for something in her locker and it is making her skirt inch higher. He may have been socially repressed while in military school, but his bunkmate was a pervert and, sadly, even the stoic German could not escape that fate.

Thankfully, he doesn't even have time to stare, because Gil has brought over some more people to introduce his "awesome little bro (exclamation mark)" to. They are more a blur of names and faces than people: words like "Francis", "Antonio", "Roddy", and "Liz- OH SHIT THAT FUCKING HURTS!"

This certainly is a strange school, if it allows students to beat each other with frying pans. Or carry blowtorches, for that matter. Ludwig doesn't want to know where his brother got the thing or what he plans on doing with it.

These people who already know each other start talking, and Ludwig immediately feels out-of-place. The one guy with long, blonde hair has hand down the tanned guy's pants, and the girl with the frying pan is hanging off the glasses guy's arm. Gil, of course, is speaking far too loudly and with an unnecessary use of expletives and the word "awesome".

Thus, Ludwig inches his way backward, out of the circle, and attempts to find the bathroom. He doesn't want to stay in the hall, since all these odd people are making him nervous. Plus, there's that Italian girl with the nice legs and he really, really doesn't want her to see him.

He is almost taller than Gilbert, but too lanky and too long. His feet are too big, and he is still fighting acne. Compared to the short-skirt, baggy-jeans, T-shirt population, his dress shirt, tie, and slacks look just as jarring as his body does.

He has been missing military school, but he has never wanted it so desperately as he does now. There are no Italian girls in military school. There are no stupid, albinos brothers that push him into life. There are rules, gorgeous, delicious rules that don't let him think so that he actually has time to breathe.

Letting out the breath he was holding, Ludwig straightens his tie, squares his shoulders, and makes his way back into the world.

He is assaulted by noise, but he ignores it and weaves his way to his locker, praying that no one looks too closely at him. He pulls out his fresh school supplies, things that he actually enjoyed shopping for, while Gil ran around and bought all the gummy bears sold at the cash registers.

His first period is Earth Science, downstairs in the labs. He pushes open the door to the stairwell and his heart stops.

There, right before him, is Felicia Vargas, and all he can stare at is her face. She is gorgeous. She is thin, but far from looking anorexic. She is lightly tanned, auburn hair falling over her shoulders in a careless-but-still-beautiful way, with one curious curl sticking out. He catches just a glimpse of her caramel-colored eyes and he can suddenly care less about her made-in-Italy legs.

He doesn't know what to do, because he is alone in a stairwell with this girl and he honestly can't wrap his mind around it.

"Oh, ciao~" she says abruptly, waving enthusiastically. She sounds like sunshine incarnate. "I'm Felicia Vargas, but you can call me Feli~ I'm lost!"

Ludwig doesn't know what to say, so he clears his throat. "Um… hello. I am Ludwig Beilschmidt. Um… pleased to meet you." He sticks out his hand, locking his elbow on accident. Feli simply looks at it as if she's not sure of how to eat it.

"Oh! Are you Gil's brother? He was talking about you a lot last summer! He was so excited that you were coming home! It was really sweet! I wish Lovi would do that for me more often but she doesn't like to be nice to people. Unless they give her tomatoes! Or pasta! I like pasta! Do you like pasta, Ludwig?"

She is beaming at him and he still doesn't know how to respond. Perhaps there is a book on understanding Italians. He will have to search for that later.

"You know Gil?"

"Yeah! He's really nice!"

He doesn't really bother to register this information. He simply gives thanks that he didn't get an entire paragraph this time.

"Oh!" she says suddenly. "I almost forgot! I'm supposed to be in Earth Science but this is my first year here and I'm lostttttt!"

Ludwig straightens his tie again and refuses to look at the puppy eyes. "Well, I have that class first period as well. I suppose I could… ah, accompany you."

"YAY!" Instantaneously, she attaches herself to his arm, making it difficult to walk down the stairs and hold the door for her whenever they encounter one.

Once Feli finds a seat in the classroom (right next to his), she tackles him with a hug and declares that he will be her new best friend. He blushes and gently removes her from his person. Someone in the corner snickers and Ludwig buries himself in the manual on high school that he brought along.

When he notices that Feli is chattering inanely to no one in particular, he looks up at her and realizes that no manual is going to help him get out of this place… alive, that is.

At lunch, Ludwig sits with his brother, because it would apparently tarnish the albino's reputation if anyone related to him sat alone like a nerd. So, he is sitting in the middle of a conversation between Francis and Gilbert. Then, Antonio spies a cute freshman that he wants to talk to/hit on, so the whole group takes their lunches and sits down at a table with a loud, American girl, a boy with green eyes and huge eyebrows, as well as Feli and a girl that has to be her sister.

Antonio sits down next to the Feli-sister while Francis attempts to molest the eyebrows boy. Gil just laughs at them, while Ludwig stands there, holding his tray and looking anywhere but at the bowl of pasta and the Italian eating it.

"Ludwig!" It seemed that he could not escape it. "Sit with me!"

For some reason, he cannot resist her and gingerly sits down. He starts to eat methodically, tuning out Feli's babble about pasta.

He feels as if he should say something, but he honestly has no clue as to what to do in this situation. He has never eaten lunch with an Italian before and he is terrified. His social skills have always been lacking, but they are even worse now that he is back in the real world.

Eventually, Feli's attention shifts to her sister ("Lovi", apparently), and Ludwig is relieved. He doesn't really know why she had even bothered speaking with him in the first place.

When he thinks no one is looking, he pulls out his manual and begins to read and eat at the same time. He is only able to finish three paragraphs when the eyebrows boy ("Arthur") asks what he is reading in an impeccable British accent. Hesitantly, Ludwig shows them all the cover, and after a moment of squinting, the loud girl laughs, soon followed by Gil and his idiot friends.

Arthur glares at the girl, but Ludwig can tell a smirk of derision when he sees one. He does not care about his brother's goddamn reputation, and goes to sit by himself instead.

It isn't long before Feli pops up beside him and starts talking again. Something about pasta and Lovi and her father… frankly, Ludwig does not care.

"Felicia… please, I would rather be left alone."

"But you need a hug." She says it as if hugs are the most serious business on the planet, and proceeds to wrap her arms around his middle and nuzzle her head into his shoulder.

His heart stops, and he runs through the list of symptoms in his mind, trying to find a medical condition that matches. But he cannot think, not really, not with Feli so close and so warm and so shutting off every mechanism in his body.

He tenses and she pulls away, smiling brightly and talking again, as if the previous scene had never happened.

He scoops up some potatoes and doesn't look at her while he eats.

Gil never ceases to remind his brother that he is a failure. Ludwig realizes that he is socially inept and that it is a miracle that a Vargas will actually associate with him.

He quickly learns that the Vargas twins are the stepdaughters of the principal, Hellas Karpusi, and the daughters of Romulus Vargas, the teacher of every pointless class the school offers. They are the little half-sisters of Herakles Karpusi, the school's resident sex god, even if he doesn't realize his own reputation.

Thus, Gil says, it is the desire of every straight or bi male to get one of the Vargas girls, even if they are only freshmen and not yet "sexy". Ludwig understands, but that doesn't mean he thinks it is reasonable.

He walks Feli to Earth Science every day. He holds doors for her and carries her books, and has learned to halfway listen to her and sometimes actually has a bit of a conversation with her.

He is getting ready for school one morning, fixing his tie while not looking at his face (because no one wants to see that), when Gil stumbles in.

"Heyyy, West," the older slurs. "Why you wearin' that?"

"What do you mean?" Ludwig turns sharply to glare at the half-asleep albino in skinny jeans and a tight, black shirt.

"You're not gonna pick up any chicks in _that_."

He suddenly gets defensive. "Gilbert, I have no desire to do anything of that sort. I am at school to _learn_, not to lose my virginity."

"So you don't care about impressing Feli Vargas?"

Ludwig doesn't deem that worthy of an answer. He walks out of his room and makes himself some breakfast. If Gil didn't drive him to school, he wouldn't have bothered to wait for his lazy brother. Still, he doesn't speak to him on the ride to school.

When he sees Feli at her locker, though, he can't help thinking of what his brother said. She is "ve"-ing and talking to Kiku, the Japanese sophomore in Ludwig's Pre-Calculus class. He likes the boy well enough, but seeing him with Feli… maybe Gil is right and everyone simply wants to open up those nice, Italian legs.

Plus, Kiku is wearing normal clothing. It seems that Ludwig, Arthur, and the glasses guy (Roderich, he has learned) are the only ones that dress formally on a regular basis. Roderich only has a girlfriend because he's been dating Elizaveta since the second grade.

Of course, this is only an issue if Ludwig actually thinks of Felicia in that regard. If he does possess romantic feelings for her, he won't even know how to identify them.

He still walks up to Kiku and Feli and greets them both. Kiku simply nods, while Feli squeezes him in an enthusiastic hug. "Ve~ Good morning, Ludwig~"

"Uh… good morning, Felicia."

"Call me Feli! Please! All my friends call me Feli and you're my best friend, so you should too!"

"Feli, we can't be best friends if we've known each other for less than a month! We hardly know anything about each other."

"But I know lots of things about you! You eat nasty wurst for lunch and you read books on how to do things and you slick your hair back because it looks sloppy if you don't and you have three dogs and they're really cute and you don't like pasta because you've never eaten any of mine and you like to read old books like Arthur does and you work on cars with Gil and you've drank beer because your dad let Gil give you some and you don't like Gil sometimes but other time you do and you're really shy sometimes but that's okay because I think that's sweet~"

It takes Ludwig a minute to process this, and he can feel his skin heating up as he realizes that she called him "sweet". He isn't sure if this is a positive response or not, but he guesses that it is from the way that Feli is staring at him.

"Uh…" He clears his throat and stares at his dress shoes. "…Thank you, Felicia. I think you are… a nice girl and that you are very pleasant to be around."

She tilts her head as if confused, but in an instant she is smiling again. He takes her books, his in the messenger bag slung across his shoulder, and they walk to class. Feli waves to Kiku and keeps chattering to Ludwig. He still holds every single door and when they get to class she chirps a "Thank you!" He blushes again and sets her books down, hurriedly sitting in his own seat and pulling out his manual on high school.

Suddenly, his book lowers, and he barely has time to register a slim, tanned finger before Feli's face appears on the other side of the desk. "I get lonely when you read all the time~" is all she says.

He stiffens instantly. "I do apologize, Felicia. I will attempt to do better in the future."

She laughs, closing those eyes that he loves to stare at when no one is looking. "That's alright~ I just wish you were happy more often."

"I am happy…" he murmurs. "Sometimes."

_At least I am when I'm with you_.

Feli smiles. "That's good! Everyone needs to be happy! I want you to be happy too, Ludwig!"

She receives a quiet "Danke" and a tiny, barely-there smile.

Gil finds his little brother in the middle of his room, surrounded by books and papers. The albino rolls his eyes. How could someone related to his own awesomeness be so… weird?

"Yo, West! What're you doin'?"

Ludwig looks up expressionlessly. "I'm looking through my books to determine the exact nature of my feelings."

The albino rolls his eyes. "Aw, c'mon. It can't be that difficult. What're you trying to figure out?"

The younger looks back at his books, embarrassed. "Let me guess," Gil says. "You're trying to figure out what you feel about Feli."

Ludwig doesn't answer, but the blush on his cheeks says enough. Gil starts laughing, and Ludwig tries to shove him out of the room, but fails.

"Stop laughing," Ludwig mutters. "You don't have a girlfriend, either."

"Well, yeah, but I've got too many awesome chicks that love me and I don't wanna hurt any of their cute little feelings."

"See? I don't think that's how a relationship is supposed to work."

"Says that guy who think normal people wears ties to school."

"I don't think that normal people do that, Gil. I simply think that it's proper attire for going out in public."

Gil rolls his eyes. "Save it, West." He looks at his brother and suddenly realizes how distraught he really is. "Hey, it's not that hard. Just ask yourself if you like Feli and, if you do, if you'd be willing to bang her."

"No! I am _not_… doing anything inappropriate with Felicia!" Ludwig can hardly believe the vehemence of his own outburst.

Gil can't, either, because he backs away and holds up his hands in an over-exaggerated "calm down" gesture. "Hey, I was just kidding. But, seriously, it's not that hard, bro. Only you would have trouble figuring out if you had the hots for a girl or not."

Thankfully, Gil leaves, and Ludwig is left alone with his books. He wants to try his brother's method, but it doesn't seem very reliable and Ludwig wants to be absolutely sure of his feelings before he proceeds.

Still, it cannot hurt, and none of his books have helped at all.

He closes his eyes and pictures Feli the way he always does – the Feli he met in the stairwell on the first day of school. He thinks of her musical babbling that is pretty much the background music to his life. He reminds himself of their lunchtimes, when he reads and she talks as she eats pasta and how he is somehow always happy around her.

He definitely likes Feli. He just isn't sure if it is as a friend or… more.

He thinks of Roderich and Elizaveta and how they act, trying to picture he and Feli like that. But Feli already hangs off him and hugs him a lot. If it weren't Feli doing those things, it might mean she felt something for him.

But this is about his feelings. He blocks all that out, and hopes that if he concentrates hard enough, then maybe he'll know.

It doesn't happen until dinner, when Gil is telling a story and mentions Feli's name. The word registers in Ludwig's brain, and, for no reason at all, there is a slight feeling inside his ribs.

There is no reason why, but he suddenly _knows_.

Ludwig reads in a book on love that once you have identified your own feelings, you need to discern those of your love interest.

He's trying to do just that, but Feli is impossible to understand and it is suddenly awkward to be around her, because he now has so much more to say and even more reason not to say it.

So, when she invites him to her house for Thanksgiving dinner, he freezes up and stutters over his "yes".

That afternoon, he takes longer than usual fixing his hair and putting on his best blazer, slacks, and tie. He stares at his face in the mirror for thirty minutes before realizing that OCD does not help acne and there is nothing he can do.

Gil drives him to the house, and Ludwig slowly gets out of the car and makes his way to the door. Herakles answers, dressed in his dance team uniform and covered in cats.

The junior clears a space on the couch for him, and Ludwig sits down stiffly, staring at the fireplace. He is assured that Feli will be down soon, but that does nothing to soothe his nerves.

He doesn't know what to do, and he is terrified. The unknown has always been his worst nightmare, but he feels as if he has so much to lose now. He doesn't want to mess up whatever he and Feli might have.

Herakles must sense his discomfort, because the Greek-Italian boy holds out a cat to him. "Stress cat," he says, as if this is a suitable explanation.

Nevertheless, Ludwig takes the cat into his lap, wincing at the thought of cat hair on his slacks, and begins to pet it ceaselessly. Back and forth, back and forth… the rhythmic petting motion almost seems to drain him of stress. It is a strange phenomenon, but Ludwig could care less right now because this cat is the only thing keeping him sane.

Eventually, Herakles leads him into the dining room, where Lovina is already sitting at the table in sweatpants and a T-shirt, texting someone that is probably Antonio. She scowls at Ludwig, and Herakles strategically places him far away from her. His host sits down next to his half sister, and when Hellas and Romulus come in with rumpled clothes, their son forces them to sit on opposite ends of the table.

They begin eating, silence only broken by Romulus' talking, and Feli still hasn't appeared. Ludwig is nervous again and is twitching in his seat. He can barely focus on the food, which he is sure tastes wonderful.

"LUDWIG!" Suddenly, his principal's voice rips through his thoughts. She laughs at his startled expression. "Thank God, boy. I thought you were totally lost for a second there."

"I apologize," he mutters, embarrassed.

"It's fine. I was just going to tell you to relax. Feli's just getting ready."

"Hey!" Romulus cuts in. "You never let me relax!"

"That's because you're a slacker, even in bed, and I'm not doing all the work around here!"

"Even in bed? But you didn't seem to think so earlier…"

She rolls her eyes. "Shut up, or no sex for a month."

"A month?"

Herakles looks utterly mortified and Lovina doesn't even seem to be paying attention. Ludwig is shocked and completely out of his comfort zone as the two adults argue back and forth about their sex life.

Just when it can't get any worse, Feli glides into the room in a turquoise-blue strapless dress, and Ludwig cannot even function.

Somehow, he manages to stand and pull out her chair for her. She looks up at him and blinks, a smile on her lips and for some reason it seems so different than all the other, countless times the girl has smiled. Ludwig wants to bury himself in this moment and never, ever come out.

Of course, Lovina yells at him for "perving over" her sister, and he blushes and sits down so hastily that he almost misses the seat. Dinner simply goes downhill from there. Romulus and Hellas continue their verbal foreplay, Herakles eats in silence and then retreats with his cats, Lovina scowls and curses at her phone before running to her room, and Feli chats as if nothing is wrong.

When it gets to the point that the adults are pretty much having sex under the table, Ludwig gets up and leads Feli into the living room, where they find Herakles asleep with his cats.

They finally find privacy in Feli's studio. There are paintings everywhere, and Ludwig is amazed. Neither of them speaks, which is a rare occurrence.

"I'm sorry," Feli says eventually. "You looked really mad during dinner. Did I mess up?"

"No!" Ludwig is quick to correct the distressed Italian. "I… I was simply… uncomfortable."

"Then I'm sorry you were uncomfortable. I just want you to be happy."

He looks down at her serious face, and those delicious caramel eyes opened only for him. "I am happy."

"Yay~" she says, beaming again, launching into another ramble that seems a little more forced than usual, almost as if she is nervous too.

They actually talk until Gilbert arrives to pick Ludwig up. Feli stands on the porch and waves vigorously until the green SUV is out of sight. Gil asks what happened, and Ludwig doesn't bother to reply.

It's a week later, and Ludwig can barely even get out of the car. He has determined to do it today, and nothing is going to stop him.

Gil finally pushes him out and he nearly trips over his big feet as he walks into school. As always, Feli stops his heart. She's in jeans and a T-shirt, but she still manages to wear them with that casual elegance that must come from being Italian, or simply Feli.

He walks up to her and says hello. She hugs him and he blushes. He carries her books and holds doors for her and they talk before Earth Science class. Still, he cannot bring his tongue to say the words.

At lunch, she lets him try her pasta, and he has to admit that it is amazing. She still hates his wurst and potatoes though. For once, he doesn't bother to get out his manual. Instead, he listens to Feli talk, and it is enough for him.

He won't see her the rest of the day, and he feels like he failed. It shouldn't be this hard! Other boys did it! Even Roderich was able to, and as a second grader, at that.

He's walking down the hall with Gil at the end of the day, headed to the car, when he sees Feli at her locker. Without bothering to warn his brother, he walks quickly over to her. "Felicia!" he says, and the nerves must make it sound strict because she instantly looks terrified.

"H-hi, Ludwig."

"Did I scare you?" he asks quickly. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry-"

"It's okay~" she smiles. "Did you want to tell me something?"

He gulps, looks away, gulps again, stares at his shoes, and tries to force the words out. They aren't coming very well.

"Felicia," he begins, "I know that I have not known you for very long, but in that short time I believe we have developed a wonderful friendship and… well… I… I suppose what I am trying to say is… that I would be… pleased – no, honored, if you would… be my girlfriend…"

She doesn't say anything, and Ludwig feels a part of himself tear away. He is sized wrong, too stiff, too stern, too boring, too awkward, too socially inept… the list goes on and there are so many other guys out there. Feli doesn't need someone like him.

He casts a glance at her and sees her staring, wide-eyed. He blushes again, not caring if he doesn't seem manly in his defeat. "I'm sorry… I guess I should-"

"No!" she interrupts. "Don't leave! I was going to say yes but you didn't give me time to!"

Ludwig blinks. "What?"

"Yes, I want to be your girlfriend~" She wraps her arms around him and leans into his chest. Suddenly, Ludwig has no idea what to do with his arms.

"T-thank you, Felicia," he said. "I do hope that I will not let you down."

"You could never let me down, Ludwig."

He highly doubts that, but Feli suddenly declares it to be hug time, and he tentatively places his arms around her waist. She gives a soft "ve~" and closes her eyes. Ludwig slowly closes his and drinks this moment in by osmosis.

Yes, he will go home and get laughed at by Gil as he reads his manuals on relationships and how to handle Italian girlfriends, but, for the moment, he is focused on much more important things, such as making sure he doesn't fall over while holding her.


End file.
